We Hardly Knew Lady Lark
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day three hundred and two: Lady Lark has been murdered, and now Detective Winslow begins investigating.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 14th cycle. Now cycle 15!_

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**"We Hardly Knew Lady Lark"  
****Kurt, Rachel, Mercedes, Brittany, Tina, Artie  
Part 3/4 - Sequel to "The Case of Lady Lark" & "Lady Lark Must Die"  
Characters:  
**_Rachel as Cassandra "Lady Lark" Larkin & Tessa Larkin_  
_Kurt as Max Magnus_  
_Mercedes as Delia Vale_  
_Tina as Andy Sykes_  
_Brittany as Stella Franks_  
_and_  
_Artie as Detective Jim Winslow _

"I can see why you chose her for Lady Lark, that was… dramatic," Tina spoke to Kurt as the small group sat in the basement stairs. They'd decided to deem the area as limbo between the 'play' ground, to keep from abandoning Artie at the bottom while everyone else went upstairs. They had to wait, once 'Detective Winslow' had the 'body' moved, for Rachel to go up and change into her second persona. Once she returned, she would be Tessa Larkin, the victim's younger sister who'd come to join her. In the 'off time,' as Kurt would explain and remind them, Tessa Larkin would have arrived and been pulled aside and learn of her sister's passing.

"Yes, well, now comes the heart of the evening," Kurt reminded them. Soon, the door opened to reveal 'Tessa Larkin' was joining them. "Assume the position!" Kurt called and everyone moved, trying to chase the chuckles away and lock in the drama all over again.

"No one will be leaving until I find who is responsible for this, Detective Winslow declared to the assembled company and patrons. Everyone had their own way of reacting to the situation as it unfolded. Young Tessa Larkin sat in tears, being consoled by Andy Sykes, who seemed to just barely have herself together. Delia Vale played her own bit of duelling emotions. On the one hand, her rival was gone, but then she was dead, which allowed for fright. Stella in her sparkly assistant's costume sat with her head down and her hands in her lap. And Max Magnus, he paced, undoing his collar as he, like everyone else, tried to make sense of everything. At the same time, he had certain preoccupations, and all those were in regards to the pouch he'd slipped in his pocket earlier. His concerns for searches would be put to rest momentarily, as the group assembled was about to be witness to the first bit of accusation. Tessa Larkin, still seated, suddenly lifted her head up to stare over at Delia Vale.

"You… It was you, wasn't it?" she spoke with the very frail bit of confidence she'd started to build up. At seeing Delia unaffected by this except to roll her eyes, Tessa slipped out from her seat and Andy's side to come face to face with the one she accused. "My sister told me about you. You're not right, Delia Vale. You always hated her. She was better, and that scared you!"

"You're going to back away now, Miss," Delia stood with might in her eyes and voice. "Let me tell you something. It's true, your sister and I, we didn't see eye to eye; doubt that could fool anyone. But as much as I could wish for her to lose her voice or break a leg for real, I wouldn't want her to die. Who do you think I am?" Tessa took a step back, to the waiting Andy, though it remained uncertain for her to be able to trust Delia. Now with the 'face off' settled, it left the illusionist with his problem in pocket.

"Stella, go on and chat," he told his assistant, who did as instructed, sitting with Andy and Tessa, even Delia. This left Max able to approach the detective, careful. "Not the show you were expecting to see, was it?" The detective looked over, as though to say 'what do you want?' Max cleared his throat. "I have some information, which I'd be happy to share in exchange for… leniency." The detective didn't respond just yet. "You will be compensated, of course," the illusionist went on.

"How much?" Max reached in his other pocket, pulling out some – game – money and slipping it covertly to the detective. "Very well. And what am I supposed to be lenient about?" Now Max reached in and pulled out the pouch. He opened it to show the detective the contents, without letting him get a hold of it. After a moment, he closed it and put it away. "Done. Now what information do you have for me?"

"It's Stella, my assistant, Stella Franks. She's eager but… crazy, a little… not in the good way. I wouldn't think she was capable of something like this, but if push came to shove… Lady Lark wasn't too pleased to see me take a make-up girl and make her part of the show… Stella didn't trust her, either," he wandered away from the detective, who looked back to the group of girls seated together. He looked to Tessa Larkin, who seemed to have calmed again, by Andy's comforting her. They didn't look right… none of them… Even those two, filled with quietness, he couldn't trust them, not now, not yet… But he was close, he could feel it.

The investigation period would carry on, the suspicions would continue to spread. But what was left to see was who would figure it all out first.

TO BE CONCLUDED (NEXT CYCLE)

_[A/N: Attention, reader! If you're at all skilled in helping break fic-planning conundrums, give a big ol' shout! :D]  
(Note to self, don't put the words 'crack' and 'fic' next to each other, it leads to confusion ;))_

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**_[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]_**


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